The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment

Crimmins, Allison; Hawkins,; Herring, Stephanie C.; Jantarasami, L.; Mills, David; Saha, Shubhayu; Sarofim, Marcus C.; Trtanj, J.; Balbus, John; Ziska, Lewis H.; Gamble, Janet L.; Beard, Charles B.; Bell, Jesse E.; Dodgen, Daniel; Eisen, Rebecca J.; Fann, Neal

doi:10.7930/j0r49nqx

Cited by 293 publications

(213 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…On the basis of the recent report produced by the US Global Change Research Program [1], HWs revealed the highest 10-year estimates of fatalities and represented the second estimated economic damage (after hurricanes) among the main weather and climate disaster events in the United States from 2004 to 2013 [1]. The impact of HWs on mortality is particularly high in Europe, accounting for over 80% of the total heatwave-related deaths worldwide [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Heatwave Hazards in the Southeastern European Union Capitals

et al. 2017

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Heatwaves (HWs) are one of the "natural" hazards with the greatest impact worldwide in terms of mortality and economic losses, and their effects may be exacerbated in large urban areas. For these reasons, more detailed analyses of urban HW trends represent a priority that cannot be neglected. In this study, HW trends were investigated during the warmest period of the year (May-September) by using a slightly improved version of the EuroHEAT HW definition applied on long meteorological time-series (36-year period, 1980-2015) collected by weather stations located in the capitals of the 28 European Union member countries. Comparisons between two 18-year sub-periods (1980-1997 vs. 1998-2015) were carried out and a city-specific HW hazard index (HWHI), accounting for the main HW characteristics, was proposed. Most of the capitals revealed significant positive trends of the majority of HW hazard characteristics and substantial HWHI increases were observed during the sub-period 1998-2015, especially in the central-eastern and southeastern cities. Conversely, minor HWHI increases were observed in most of the northern capitals and opposite situations were even observed in several northern and especially southwestern cities. The results of this study represent a support for planning urban HW-related mitigation and adaptation strategies with the priority given to the southeastern cities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Heatwave Hazards in the Southeastern European Union Capitals

et al. 2017

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“…Milder cases may produce symptoms (e.g., fever, headache, rash, vomiting) that are indistinguishable from other illnesses [6] [8], raising questions about the reporting accuracy for these milder WNV expressions because of potential under-reporting and misclassification. In contrast, cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND), which occur for less than 1% of people infected with the disease, affect the brain or cause neurologic dysfunction and typically result in a patient's hospitalization [6] [9]. Because it is unlikely that these WNV patients could or would avoid hospitalization given the severity of their symptoms, there is more certainty in summaries of WNND cases [7] [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Increasing Temperature on the Future Incidence of West Nile Neuroinvasive Disease in the United States

Belová¹,

Mills²,

Hall³

et al. 2017

AJCC

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Multiple studies have identified links between climate and West Nile virus disease since the virus arrived in North America. Here we sought to extend these results by developing a Health Impact Function (HIF) to generate county-level estimates of the expected annual number of West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND) cases based on the county's historical WNND incidence, annual average temperature, and population size. To better understand the potential impact of projected temperature change on WNND risk, we used the HIF to project the change in expected annual number of WNND cases attributable to changing temperatures by 2050 and by 2090 using data from five global climate models under two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). To estimate the costs of anticipated changes, as well as to enable comparisons with other public health impacts, projected WNND cases were allocated to nonfatal and fatal outcomes, then monetized using a cost-of-illness estimate and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's value of a statistical life, respectively. We found that projected future temperature and population changes could increase the expected annual number of WNND cases to ≈2000 -2200 cases by 2050 and to ≈2700 -4300 cases by 2090, from a baseline of 970 cases. Holding population constant at future levels while varying temperature from a 1995 baseline, we estimated projected temperature change alone is responsible for ≈590 and ≈960 incremental WNND cases in 2050 and 2090 (respectively) under the RCP4.5 scenario, and ≈820 and ≈2500 cases in 2050 and 2090 (respectively) for the RCP8.5 scenario, with substantial regional variation. The monetized impact of these temperature-attributable incremental cases is estimated at $0.5 billion in 2050 and $1.0 billion in 2090 How to cite this

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“…Climate change is emerging as one of the most-if not the mostsignificant long-term risk to human health and biodiversity [75][76][77][78]. The major health professions have expressed grave concerns about the health consequences of climate change [79][80][81][82][83]. And many health care organizations have begun to include clean energy, energy efficiency, and other climate change mitigation methods in their greening programs and building designs [84,85].…”

Section: Looking Ahead: Larger Problems and Possible Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Moral Distress in Nursing History Could Suggest about the Future of Health Care

2017

AMA Journal of Ethics

137

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The concept of moral distress was defined in 1984 as (a) the psychological distress of (b) being in a situation in which one is constrained from acting (c) on what one knows to be right. A substantial literature on the subject has developed, primarily in nursing ethics. The aforementioned elements of distress are applied here to areas of clinical and organizational significance: (a) distress from causing intimate pain during care of the dying, (b) constraints stemming from proximate and background challenges of health care organizations, and (c) changing perspectives on therapeutic technologies derived from global environmental perspectives. Although moral distress may be increasing in clinical settings, nursing advocates are developing positive ways to cope with it that can help clinicians in general. IntroductionAfter its first use in nursing over 30 years ago, the concept of moral distress has proven applicable to a growing range of problematic situations. This essay outlines a few motifs in the development of the concept in nursing ethics and then considers some current applications of the concept. Starting with the bedside care of the dying, it sets moral distress in successively wider contexts, concluding with some morally problematic global environmental challenges that health care services will need to address during the next decades.

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The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment

Cited by 293 publications

References 3 publications

Increasing Heatwave Hazards in the Southeastern European Union Capitals

Increasing Heatwave Hazards in the Southeastern European Union Capitals

Impacts of Increasing Temperature on the Future Incidence of West Nile Neuroinvasive Disease in the United States

What Moral Distress in Nursing History Could Suggest about the Future of Health Care

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